Counties to wait longer for cash as Houses differ on new revenue bill

By , K24 Digital
On Tue, 17 Sep, 2019 10:02 | 2 mins read
Charity Ngilu and Kenneth Lusaka
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu and Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka when they toured Kikotex industries on September 16, 2019. PHOTO | HILLARY MAGEKA | PD
Kitui Governor Charity Ngilu and Senate Speaker Kenneth Lusaka when they toured Kikotex industries on September 16, 2019. PHOTO | HILLARY MAGEKA | PD

The financial crisis facing county governments seems far from over after the two Houses of Parliament differed on the commencement date of the disputed Division of Revenue Allocation (DORA) Bill.

Two weeks ago, counties breathed a sigh of relief after Senate agreed with the National Assembly to a proposed allocation of Sh316 billion following months of a protracted standoff over the bill.

However, the reprieve could be cut short after senators detected an “irregularity” in the version of the bill passed by members of the National Assembly.

While senators passed the meditation version of the bill to take effect upon gazettement, their counterparts in the National Assembly passed the same bill and backdated it to July 1, 2019.

“Our counterparts in the National Assembly have gone extremely rogue, they are now practicing conmanship and forgery. They have sneaked what we did not agree in our mediation talks,” Senator Mohammed Mahamud, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance and Budget told K24 Digital on Monday.

He continued: “We had only two issues on the meditation table, the Sh6 billion medical leased equipment and Sh316 billion county allocation, the issue of backdating the DORA commencement date was not one of them.”

If not resolved, Senator Mahamud warned that it will affect the cash disbursement schedule that is yet to be debated and passed and derail the release of funds to devolved units.

The cash disbursement schedule is expected to be tabled on Wednesday at the senate sittings in Kitui County.

But in what is promising to be a litmus test for the two houses, senators want the bill “rectified” by the National Assembly before it is presented to the President for assent.

K24 Digital has established that the new stalemate could point to another round of meditation talks after members of National Assembly said “they had done nothing with the bill.”

According to Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr, who was also a member of the meditation committee, the National Assembly inserted the date by “handwriting” in the new bill.

Mutula held the National Assembly action is to legitimise the Appropriation Act 2019, which is being contested by senators in the Supreme Court.

“You cannot bring an issue which was not in the meditation. How do you regularise Appropriation Act Bill, 2019, by backdating it,” Mutula asked.

Senator Mutula said that the law requires that an appropriation bill is debated and signed into law after the passage of the Division of Revenue Allocation (DORA) bill in both houses.

However, Kitui Central MP Makali Mulu defended his colleagues saying that they had been advised by their legal counsels to backdate the bill to July 1 to allow counties to receive their monies as scheduled.

“You know the financial year starts in July. What we did was to cushion ourselves in law, so that when National Treasury releases monies for July, there is a legal framework,” Mulu said in an interview.

He added: “Hadn’t we done that, any monies released between July and September, there will a lacuna in law as it will not be protected by any legislation.”